Race Post Mortem

I'm in recovery mode now. Everything feels sore and I can't remember the last time that I ran a half and felt so sore afterwards... Maybe like with childbirth, (as they say) I've forgotten the post-run pains and only remember the highs. (*eyeroll)

The race is done, which means its time to dig up the race pics from online and also do a deep-dive into the results.

So theres mine! Its not bad I suppose - 35/79 of all veteran women (sigh! yes now I'm running in the veteran category) and 85/182 of all women. I'm just above average. 

In general though, the top timings across all categories are simply amazing. Below is the top 5 times in the Veteran Women category. Even if I had run at my personal best time of 2:16, I would have been at rank#14. There was a time when I used to make it to the top 10 timings without so much of a gap between the top time and mine. It feels like everyone has gotten faster and I've gotten slower. (Thats probably very true)

What is more dismaying however is that the top 13 times in the senior veteran category also beats my timing! 

Its always when I see the results that I wish I'd done more during the race and training. But this is a bad rabbit hole to go down. So I desist.

Back to me. 2:43:19 is reasonable considering that I was running after a giant gap of 7 years. The biggest setback for me was poor sleep the night before the race and the previous night as well. But the highpoint is that I finished strong with no injuries despite the lack of sleep and not enough of warming up. I am also about 7 kilos heavier than I was 7 years back, which is definitely a contributing factor to speed but also a contributing factor to some problematic chafing which has lead to some significant post-run discomfort.

I plan to build up from here. Consistency is key (as I've been telling myself all these years but not following it) and I'm hoping I will continue training without losing this momentum. More speed work and tempo runs to be incorporated into my weekly routines to improve anaerobic capacity and as always, improved strength training workouts. I do need to drop some weight. But thats not a key focus for me, I'm guessing it will happen organically as a side effect to more consistent strength training.

I haven't signed up for any new races as yet so I'm not sure when this blog will get updated next. But hopefully it will be sooner than later.

DRHM 2025 Half Marathon

2:43:19. Not my best but also not my worst. I'll take it!!

Everything went as planned last evening. Had my dinner early enough, balanced with carbs and protein. Went to bed by 7:30 pm which was meant to give me 7 hours of sleep before the scheduled 2:30 am wake up alarm. I kept waking up though and I don't think I was relaxed enough to get enough deep, restful sleep. Despite that, I was up on time and we left home as planned and got to the start point on time.

I always do a last minute pee before leaving home for the venue and I did so today as well. But I guess my hydration has been extra good these last few days because as I got to the venue, I felt like I had to go again! Now in all these years of doing running events like these, I have never once had to use the porta-potties that are provided at the corrals. So very hesitatingly, I joined the line at one of these "toilets". It was a kind-of long line and so by the time I was 4th in queue, the race had already been flagged off. But Thank God I waited, coz I really had to go. On the flip side, this left me with no time to properly warm up before the run. I had done some work at home before leaving and some movement while waiting in line but thats never enough. Anyways, I crossed the timing mat some 6+ minutes after the race had been flagged off.

I was completely with the plan at the beginning - (Running the course as a 7Kx3 and finishing each 7K in just under 50min and so finishing the HM at 2:30) In fact the first 7K went really well - I was feeling strong and finished it in about 50 minutes. From there on, I slowly started fading. I could feel that my heart rate was really up (And indeed it was. While normally my watch shows it to be in the low 170s during a long run, today it was in the high 180s) and I felt like I had to stop and take quick little walking breaks to bring it down. I knew that the next couple of 7K segments would be much slower. So I gave up on monitoring my pace. I continued with the run-walk plan till about 9K, and I could really, really feel myself fading and the thought of continuing for another 12K seemed impossible.

And then I met Prem (from my Nungambakkam Nitros days) who was running his regular training run and he joined me for the rest of the run. Honestly, if not for his company and the chit chat and his encouragement, I might have thrown in the towel before the end or definitely would have had a slower finish time. I continued with the run/walk plan till the end. When I saw the giant LED timer at the finish line suddenly loom up in front of me, I did a quick time check and saw it was 2:42: something... My plan B goal time of anything less than 2:45 was still within reach! I was glad to see that I had enough energy to dredge up from somewhere to "sprint" to the finish line.

In the finishing area, they had ice cold fruity popsicles (which I remembered being absolutely lovely from a previous edition of DRHM) so though the lines were long and crowded I waited patiently for mine.. :) I ran into many familiar faces and friends from my old running days and the whole running community vibe felt nice. I finished strong without any aches and pains and without having pulled any weird muscles along the way so all in all, today's experience has been a great one.

Should I sign up for another event while the going is good?

13 hours away.

And just like I said, 5 days just flew by and race day is upon me. In less than 13 hrs I'm going to be lined up at the start.

The route for 21.1K looks great. A nice long stretch of 10.5 K along the coast line and back. I am very familiar with this route having run along it many times. Its more or less flat except for the Adyar River bridge at around 8 kms in (and again on the way back). As with every race, I like to look up the route on google maps and break it down km-wise and sort of mentally run the course. While the original plan (at the beginning of my training) was to run the 21K as 3 segments of 7K in 43 min each (43min x3 = 129 min = 2:09) I have since switched my focus to just running strong. 

Since a PB looks extremely unlikely, I will be happy with any time thats less than my very first HM timing (which was 2:45:30). However, I will be very pleased if I can run it in less than 2:30:00. So to that end, I'm gunning for 7K in 50 min each (50min x3 = 150 min = 2:30). This feels doable. :)

This morning I went to the expo. It was quite the distance away but still, worth my while - it was well organised, with quite a few interesting stalls. Collected my bib without having to wait in any long lines, took a couple of pics and all-in-all felt really good about running an event again after all this time. 

Got home, did my race fit flat lay, readied up my shoes, did a bit of mobility, took stock of the butterfly population in my tummy and now going to settle in, relax, have a good dinner and go to bed early.

21183. I hope thats a lucky Bib

Its Race Week!!!

5 more days to Race Day. I am quite happy and excited for it. 

To be honest, once I dropped the goal pace / finishing time expectations and decided to switch my focus to just running strong, a lot of the nervousness and apprehensions just disappeared. I plan to run 1 more run tomorrow (a brisk 7K) & maybe a quick 20 min run on Friday to shake out the legs and any built up nervousness if needs be.  I plan to do some band / light weight workouts till Thursday and also a couple of swim sessions before the race. That much should leave me feeling trained enough but also rested & at a "battery-full" level.

I'll have a very early rise on Sunday and am prepping for it by waking up & going to bed half an hour earlier than usual this week. So far, so good. I have been wilfully drinking more water & fluids these past couple of days. I'm normally so bad at hydrating enough that I'm trying very hard to be hyper conscious of my water intake now.

During this training cycle I had been trialling various fuelling habits on my long runs to see which works the best for me. I've determined that fasted runs are a really, really bad idea. I lose steam very fast during the run and develop bad migraines post run. So about half an hour before the run, eating something is an absolute must. I've tried a couple of bananas, a tablespoon honey, a slice of bread with PB and Jam, a couple of dates, my energy laddoos (which are basically just oats, dates, pb and honey blended together and made into little balls) and they all work pretty well - digested quickly enough and delivers the necessary energy to fuel the first bit of the run. My race day go-to is going to be Bread, PB and Jam and two Bananas. I'll be leaving home about an hour before flag-off time so the plan is to have the sandwich at home and the two bananas en-route. 

When running longer than 60 minutes, its normally recommended that you fuel during the runs as well. In addition to the hydration/electrolytes its good to supply the body with some easy-absorption carbs to prevent the dreaded "bonking" during the run. In the past, my choice of hydration has been glucose water or diluted apple juice with a squeeze of lemon & salt, but this training cycle I thought I'd try a couple of "elite" hydration supplements. I've been using Fast & Up from the beginning of the cycle and Unived's Hydration salts during the last couple of training blocks. While I'm pretty sold on the fast&up reload tablets, the Unived elite hydration mix literally left a bad taste in the mouth. I still have a lot of it left so I'll probably continue using it till its over. It does do it's job just that it doesn't taste great. 

I also trialled the 15g CHO Gel 100 from Unived in the salted caramel flavour for mid-run fuelling. This tasted great and am guessing it did serve the purpose of delivering quick energy but I did feel like I needed the loo every time I ingested the gel. Prior to this I was fuelling my runs with hard candy. :) I'm not even kidding. I was having a combination of Alpenliebe's caramel candies and Kopiko coffee candies. This was just a treat! Instant sugar rush and it made me look forward to the next fuelling point in the run. Probably wasn't great for my teeth but it really served the purpose I think. But the real winner (and the fuel choice for race day) is Haribo's gummy bears. Each gummy bear is about 2g of carbs. Ideally for me, I should be having about 30-40g of carbs per hour of running. My calculations are not exact science, but I worked that out to be 2 gummy bears for every KM after 6K. I like gummy bears so its like a little reward for completing 1 km. Only problem is that 30-32 gummy bears takes up space. I'll be running with 2 small ziplock bags of 16 gummy bears each which will leave two telltale bulges in the pockets of my leggings that looks very funny in photos (problems! huh?). But its a small sacrifice that I'm willing to live with :). On race day I'll be depending on the aid stations for hydration. In the past editions of DRHM, they've been very well stocked and well organised so no worries on that front.

One more update on Saturday after I collect my Bib and then its Race Day! I think the next 5 days are going to fly by.

10 days to go (plus, a shoes update)

I'm halfway through tapering now. In about 10 days, I'll be lining up at the start line.

Its time to really get race ready. Training-wise, I've done all that I can, its now time to wind-down and recover enough so that physically I'm rested enough to take on the race on "fresh legs". So when I say really race-ready, I'm speaking mentally, nutritionally as well as gear-wise race-ready.

Mentally, I'm in a really good space right now. After my 19K run in Trivandrum, I feel confident I can run the full 21.1K, strong and at a reasonably brisk pace. I just need to keep other stress factors at bay from now till the 20th and continue to feel good about running the distance. "I got this"!!!

Nutritionally, I've always been weak on the hydration front. Getting my requisite water intake during regular weeks itself is a challenge since my thirst drive isn't very strong and setting reminders on my phone to drink up hasn't proven effective enough. Hydration during race week is that much more pertinent which means I somehow, simply, MUST drink more water. How though?. On the other hand, carb loading has never been an issue since our regular meals are generally high enough in carbs. Need to get in more protein than usual though, for the strength. 

Planning my race-day outfit is one of the most enjoyable aspects of my race-readiness process. While I haven't yet settled on what I'm going to be wearing, I do know which shoes I'm going to put on.  :)

During the course of my training I had to unexpectedly retire two pairs of running shoes. The outsole on the dark grey ones ("Smoky") had become worn out and had no traction left. I would find myself skidding in it on my runs. The outsole on the red & white ones ("Capsicum"), while otherwise good & dandy,  just came apart one fine day. I did try sticking it back on, but that (as expected) didn't last. Smoky only had a mileage of 348 km on them and Capsicum was fairly new with just 266 km on them and both their uppers were still in great condition so it was quite disappointing to have to give them away. With two pairs out of commission, I was left with just one pair ("Guava") to train in and with more than half the training left to go. 

I never really need much of an excuse to go shoe shopping and here was a perfectly legit excuse! Introducing Salt & Pepper! :) Salt is an ON model I hadn't tried before (Cloud X). It has more cushioning than the Cloud Flow model that I'm used to, but looks way more cooler if you ask me. To be perfectly honest, I bought it solely for its looks but after going on a couple of short runs in it, it feels like a winner all around. Pepper is the current edition of the Cloud Flow. The mesh on the upper is more close knit than the previous version but that doesn't seem to affect anything other than the look of it. It also seems to have a higher "roll" on the outsole from mid foot to fore foot which I think helps but it may be too soon to tell. The last long run I did was in Pepper and that went well, so I'm thinking it will work just as fine on race day. Now I just need to plan the rest of the fit around it.

Ooh! Excited! Before I know it, race day will be upon me!

Time to Taper

And just like that, the hardest bit of the training plan is done. I started tapering this week - gradually decreasing the running volume so I can recover and run the half with relatively "fresh legs". :)

I am in Trivandrum currently so for a change, my long run didn't have to be 20 odd loops on a 900m loop. In fact, on Sunday, I had the best long run in all of the training. Weather was nice - cool, slightly rainy, breezy, the route was a nice long 10K which I repeated twice, and even though the roads had many, many uphills and downhills, I really, really enjoyed the run. My pace was quicker too than last week so it has boosted my confidence somewhat. I will be very lucky to have the same weather conditions on race day (I'm expecting hot and muggy) but the route will be much flatter so I'm hoping it will be a good, strong run on 20th.

Pace-wise, I'm adjusting my expectations. A lot. 2:10 looks highly impossible. If I can run at an average pace of 7'00" and finish under 2:30, I will still be very pleased - even though its not a PB.

Peak Week is here!

3 more weeks to Race Week and next week is Peak Week! The highest running volume week in the whole training period, the last week of the last-big-push, the come-on-you-got-this-week - well, you get the picture!

I'm going into Peak week in a much better mindset than I was in last week. Last week I was ready to throw in the towel. I've recalibrated somewhat after today's long run. Ran 18K and there was no funny knee pain and miracle of miracles, there was no post-run migraine either. It wasn't easy or elegant, but I did manage to complete that long, long run on a maddening 900m loop, on this very hot Sunday morning. 

I ran it at an average pace of 7'23". Come race day, I doubt I'll be able to go any faster than that. Between now and race day, I doubt anything's going to magically happen to bump up my pace from 7'23" to 6'09". Even though I'm able to do a 7K at that pace now, its only possible with the many, many breaks in between. Race Day is going to be as hot and muggy as this morning was, so weather-wise its not going to help either. Plus I'm sure the course will have at-least one flyover en-route. The only plus point I see which might be to my advantage is that the course will be 1 large 21.1K loop and not several 900m loops and the novelty of that, plus the general race ambience and energy may propel me a little faster. 

Anyhow... next week I'll have a better idea of how close or far away I am from my goal pace. 

Last Big Push

5 weeks to race day. This is my last big push - and I will really need it.

Last week I fell ill (again) but this time it was a full-blown flu, complete with temperature, body ache, cough and congestion. It might have been Covid, which, apparently is doing the rounds again. It took a while to get over it and the aftermath ran into this week. To top it off, mid week, I got my period and my body felt extra-beat this morning as I set off on my long 18K run. Of course, as was to be expected, I could not complete it. Around 12.5K, (to my absolute dismay) I developed a funny pain in my left knee which would stop as soon as I stopped running. The pain was too intense to be ignored. Ended the run at the 13K mark. 

Was (still am) feeling quite bummed out about not just today's run but also the way the whole training is going. Actually considered (considering) stopping the training and not doing this event at all. These past 6 weeks or so, after every single long run, I would develop migraines later on in the day. Migraines of varying degrees. The longer the run, worse the migraine! I'm guessing its the combination of heat and exhaustion. I believe I've been pretty good with my hydration and fuelling but obviously there are still some gaps to be filled. 

Currently as I'm writing this, there is a dull throbbing in my head which makes me think:

Is it all worth it? 

Should I keep at it?

3/4ths done

 ...well, almost!

Time is flying by and just like that I'm almost at the end of the 3rd block in my training plan. Today I ran 17K. It took me 2 hrs, 9 minutes and 59 seconds. Which funnily enough, is my race day goal time (for the whole distance of 21.1K). Which means to say, I am running short of 4.1K! I have 7 weeks to go to race day. I'm not sure that I can improve by that much over the next few weeks, in order to close that gap...  This feels like a really, really, tough ask!

7'39" pace today.  6'09" goal pace.  6'17" was my 7K pace on Tuesday - which is much closer to 6'09" but I did take quite a few untimed breaks. I am barely able to sustain 1 mile at 6'09" and I think I should be able to sustain at least 4K at goal pace at this point in my training in order for goal pace on race day to become a reality.

Last week, my Garmin race time prediction dipped down to 2:36:35. It is currently showing 2:33:58. This is a bit of a bummer. The prediction times are supposed to go up not down! 

Oh well, we trust in the process and plod on!

Half way there!

11 weeks of training done and 10 more weeks to go. While the 1st 7 weeks went visibly well and I could see clear progress at the end of the "base-building phase", I'm not sure if the last 4 weeks of "picking-up-the-pace phase" has contributed to any significant progress. I'm sure there is incremental progress, for example, a 7'05" pace doesn't feel so bad now while it used to feel incredibly tough even 4-5 weeks back, but impatient me is looking for significant progress. Alas, thats never the case. Slow & steady: I must remind myself.

This week had me running 1Kx3 @ goal pace and while it was hard effort, it was doable. I managed all three sets at goal pace which is an improvement over the huffing-and-puffing 800mx2 @goal pace that I did 3 weeks ago. Small victories.Then I think that I will have to do 21 sets like than on race day without the rest intervals between sets and I'm back to thinking, maybe this is not enough progress.

It doesn't help my mental space that my Garmin's race time prediction hasn't improved at all in this time. In fact it keeps bobbing between 2:31 & 2:28. The hardest two blocks are coming up, hopefully that will be enough to shape me up and have me race ready by the time I'm lining up at the start on July 20th. We'll see. 

Training Blues...

 I'm nearly at the end of the 2nd block of my training and I'm not feeling the best.

Even though I've managed to check off most of my workouts this block, I've hit on some troubling spots that has slowed me down a bit, and managed to give me a bit of the training blues. I've always considered the long run of the week to be the most important one and when that doesn't go as planned, I feel a bit bummed out. The last two weeks, I've had to swap out my 90 minute run for an indoor run of the same duration. Its better than nothing but I feel a bit less "trained" than I ought to be. I know that that bit is mostly in my head, but still!

To elaborate on those troubling spots that I mentioned : I've been having a bad run of restless, sleepless nights. No idea what might be the cause of this, but I feel less recovered going into the next day's workouts. I've been feeling flu-y since last Thursday. Its just an itchy throat and a general feeling of bunged-up-ness but it doesn't feel great. This also comes with a side of lethargy which is simply not helping. The worst of all, Friday morning I woke up with a pain in my right knee! No idea why. I went to bed with the knee feeling perfectly fine, wake up, and its throbbing! I'm thinking I must have slept funny and that might have stirred up old feelings in the knee - which has never really been the same since my injury back in 2018.

All that being covered, this week is cutback week - which is ideal. The knee thing seems to have subsided now and though I'm still feeling flu-y, I have enough energy to handle this week's low intensity, lower mileage training. Although, I do plan on getting in that skipped tempo WO from last week for good measure. Good thing thats only on Thursday - I'm hoping I'll be well and recovered by then.

More notes down the line.

Week 6!!

Week 6!! We've got roughly 13 weeks to go. Every week that I can stay the course, injury-free, is reason enough to celebrate! :)

Last week I started Block 2 of my training plan. Block 2 & 3 are considered the "build phase" where you're supposedly increasing mileage, building strength and working on getting faster. The intensity just got amped up. Last week's interval workout involved running 1 mile at goal pace. Sadly, I wasn't there yet. I think I started the workout with a "I don't think I got this" mind-frame, and found myself fading at around 700m. So instead of 1 mile @6'09" I ended up doing 800m x2 @6'13". Plenty of scope for improvement here. Have accordingly tweaked next week's 2 mile run @goal pace to 1Kx3 at goal pace. Heres hoping that goes better.

I really feel like I'm getting into each morning's workout with less than ideal sleep / recovery the previous night - which obviously has a negative impact on the run. Summer is truly upon us now and even the nights are super hot and sultry which doesn't lend itself to a proper, restful sleep. Also, since I've started waking up at 4:30 in order to start my runs earlier, I ought to be going to bed a little earlier (ideally 8:30, but that just seems ridiculously early to me!) to try and log the optimum 8 hours sleep. Something to work on.

More updates to follow. :)

I signed me up!!!

The registrations for DRHM2025 opened up on Monday this week. And I signed up for it today. Its now become very real. Theres no backing out now. We're doing this!!!

Race week is about 14 weeks away. My goal as announced previously is to complete the half marathon in 2:10:00. I'm training diligently for it and am 80% confident that I can get there. Yes, only 80% confident because self-doubting moments are quite frequent given that I haven't done a half marathon race in 7 years and my past PB is 2:16:38. 

My Garmin watch (that I upgraded a year and a half ago) has this cool feature, where you can log in the event that you're training for in the app, and it will predict your finish time based on your current fitness / training. So depending on how you are progressing with your workouts, the watch adjusts its prediction accordingly. For me its very heartening to see that the prediction has gone from 2:40:something at the very beginning to 2:34:16 to currently 2:30:51. I'm hoping it will keep dropping over the course of my training and that the day before the race, it will show 2:10:00. Now, that would be a great confidence booster!!!

1qtr Done! :)

And just like that the 1st block of my training is done! As mentioned earlier, I had split my 21 weeks of training into 3 weeks of base building, and 4 blocks of 4 weeks of race training at progressive intensities followed by a couple of weeks of tapering. We're now 7 weeks down and things are looking good. I'm glad to see that have I've been able to check off about 90% of the planned workouts, I'm not fatigued, and best of all, that I am injury-free (knock on wood). Looking back to the start of the 7 weeks, I can see that there has been some progress and that is definitely a motivating factor to keep going.

Up until now, the workouts have been relatively easy. When I say easy, what I actually mean is "not-intimidating". For example, when I see "75 min run" on the calendar, it feels very doable in my head. And when I see paces of 5'30" and 6'09" on there for 1 or 2 minutes, also it feels very doable. In the coming weeks though, we're going to be amping it up. I have a 1 mile @ goal pace run scheduled for Thursday and that does feel quite a bit daunting. Actually the idea of running at any pace thats quicker than 7'00" for a sustained period itself is very intimidating at the moment. The hope is that, that feeling changes over the course of the next few weeks. Trust in the process right?

Maintaining

There! Week 2 and 3 of my training block done! 

Week 2 went off relatively well except that I ended up having to swap my weekend's long outdoor run for an equally long indoor run and my weekly mileage was a smidge less than target. During my week of travelling i.e. Week 3, I had to make several tweaks to my training plan. Too many late nights, diet all over the place and also my periods showing up early meant making many compromises and choosing to sleep in for proper recovery rather than pushing through a run on a sleep deprived state (I've wised up these days!). 

To summarise, I came up 1 run short and had to swap a couple of the remaining ones for equivalent indoor runs. My weekend long run was cut short because my watch battery ran out and also I was really, really tired and wasn't quite "feeling it". There was no swimming at all :(. I had some resistance bands on hand so managed to get in 3 out of 5 strength sessions using these and body weight.  On Friday however, I did manage to make use of the steep slope leading up to my home and got in a "hill run"  which felt pretty good and was the highlight of my training week!

Given all the circumstances, training has been satisfactory. While I can't tell if theres been much progress, theres definitely not been any regression either.

Next week was meant to be cut-back week. (I'd slotted in a low mileage week after every 3 weeks to help in recovery). But considering that Week 3 was rather light in terms of effort, I'm keeping Week 4 as a do-over week to make up for the missed workouts from Week 3 but still light enough to be able to transition to Block 2 with enough energy & mojo. Lets see how that goes.

Progress!!

So while this running journal blog is a super helpful tool for me, it struck me that it possibly makes for very dry reading.. :) I might just have to insert a plot twist here and there to make it a more interesting account. Although, I hope not. Steady progression may be quite boring to read (and write) about but in training, rather desirable!

So theres Week 1 of my training. Touchwood, it all went according to plan. My 7K time went from 52 something minutes down to 50 minutes which felt great, so this week I'm aiming to repeat that (shave off those 8 seconds...) The tempo run for the week went well : 6x30s strides. Although, I had to get it done on the treadmill because my morning got away from me and it just became too late (too hot) to run on the road. The long run for the week also went well. I covered about 9.8 km in 75 minutes - 400meters further than last week - and then I just had to run for another minute to round the distance off to a nice neat 10K. :) Also managed to fit in 3 strength sessions, 3 swim sessions and 7 mobility sessions... check, check, check! Overall, good week!

I'll be travelling later this week and so am anticipating some disruptions to the plan. Will hopefully be able to work around it and still get my weekly mileage done..

Full-on Training Mode

 :)

Today I entered full-on training mode. 18 weeks to race day! My training calendar is divided into 4 blocks of 4 weeks each and then a couple of weeks for tapering. As of now, I have a skeletal plan for the whole 18 weeks in place and then as I progress, I will be fleshing it out one block at a time.

Weekly Long Run

Once a week I have me running a long duration run (ideally at an easy pace). Conventionally, training plans will have you running incremental long distances once a week till you build up to about 90% (typically) of the race distance. Typically HM training plans will have you start at 10 or 11K and build up to about 19 or 19.5K by peak week. And week-on-week the distance increment will be about 10% (not more). 

I like to look at my long run from a time-on-feet perspective than distance covered. This (supposedly) reduces chances of injury by reducing the possibility of overtraining. So for the first block my long run is going to be for 75 minutes, then 90 minutes for the next block, then 105 and so on. Consecutive weeks of running a fixed amount of time gets your body & mind used to being on the move for that amount of time and (theoretically) the distance covered in the duration starts to feel easier and easier.

Every 4th week is cutback week where I'll be reducing the time-on-feet and weekly mileage to help the body recover before jumping into the next block of higher training intensity.

Tempo & Interval Runs

Once every other week I'll be doing a Tempo run. Tempo runs are meant to be "comfortably hard". These will be shorter distances at goal pace to get the body used to running at that pace. And every other week I have interval runs scheduled. These are even shorter distances run at a pace faster than goal pace. The idea here is to improve overall running power. I found a 16 week HM training plan on one of my go-to running blogs called Run To The Finish and I've adapted the tempo & interval workouts from there. Have never tried these workouts before so this should be fun!

My weekly 7K runs

I've written about this before - one of my mental hacks to run a Half Marathon is to think of it as a 7Kx3 and then a little bit more rather than 21.1K. Looking at the distance as bite-sized mini chunks makes it seem much more doable. Its true what they say, that long distance running is more of a mental game than a physical one. If I can comfortably run 7K under 43 minutes, then I know that I can run the HM in my goal time of 2hrs and 10 minutes. So I've dedicated Tuesdays to working on my 7K time. Currently that comfortable time is 52 minutes (7'30" pace) I need to work this down to 42 minutes by Week 14 or so and then I'll know that goal time is a definite possibility.

Easy Runs

In addition to these runs, I'll also be throwing in a couple of easy runs during the week probably 30-45 minutes duration to make up the weekly mileage, and to maintain general aerobic fitness. Given my propensity to get injured, and to avoid possibly doing too much, these will most likely be done indoors - flat surface, controlled environment, less impact, lower heart rate and all that.

Swimming & Strength Training

Now that I have regular access to a pool and because I love it, I have scheduled 3 days a week of swimming. Swimming is a great cross training tool anyways and great for recovery. If I feel up to it, it may even be 4 or 5 times a week.

Because its absolutely essential and non-negotiable, and not because I love it, I have scheduled 3 days a week of strength training. In the past, I've not strength trained nearly enough which is one of the top reasons why I have had to go through so many niggling injuries. Of late though, I've found several workout videos (mostly fitness influencer reels on instagram) that are sort-of appealing and I have been trying them out for myself at home. This has had some mediocre success in keeping me interested enough to strength train consistently for at least 20 minutes a day, three times a week for the past few weeks. Hopefully this trend continues.

So thats the whole breakdown of my 18 week training plan. More updates on how I progress with it in the ensuing weeks. 

Base Week 3

The three weeks of "honeymoon" phase of my training plan is now done and I'm somewhat happy with the way things are going. I'm most happy with the fact that a pace of 6'09" feels hard but it doesn't feel that farfetched to think of being able to run the whole 21.1K at that pace 18 weeks down the line. Fingers crossed that my training continues smoothly without any interruptions.

Yesterday's long run of 75 minutes felt torturous (mostly because I was running it on a 300m loop). There was a time when I considered running 10K in 75 minutes to be "easy peasy" - I am barely able to do 9.5K now. Theres lots of scope for improvement. One other worry is that about 60 minutes into the run, I started feeling a familiar niggling pain on the outside of my right knee. Yes, the very same pain that I worked through back in 2023/2024 when I was training for my 20 miler. I took a teeny break, did a couple of stretches and was able to continue with the balance 15 minutes pain-free. This is of significant concern and I'm going to have to be very mindful of this issue flaring up again. Going to continue with my strength training sessions with a special focus on knee strength and prehab exercises to prevent the pain from cropping up again and becoming a serious issue.

Tomorrow is Day 1 of the full-on 18week training plan. As always, more updates to follow..

Base Week 2

Base week 2 did not go as per plan. Early on in the week I felt poorly and thought I was coming down with some flu and decided to go a little easy on the training. Thankfully it did not break out and I didn't get too sick but I did get my periods later on the week which came with some unusually painful cramps which affected my sleep, my energy and my overall will to do anything productive.

So while training did dip, it didn't flatline. I did manage a weekly mileage of 19.1K (instead of the intended 28K) and some other cross training activities however, every single activity was graded as "Strained" by my Garmin including a very mild 20 minute mobility session! I'm not sure if this is some glitch to be ignored or if I should take it seriously and reduce my training load. (I feel fine!) I have 1 more week of my "honeymoon phase" so I am going to stick to my original plan and play it by ear.

Heres to more green ticks for the coming week.

Base Week 1

Week 1 of Base building done and I'm feeling pretty good about it.  

Now, about my goal! Last week I mentioned that I had a goal in mind and that I would set it in stone once I start the training and am able to judge where I stand. After this 1st week of base building, I feel pretty confident about the goal that I've set for myself. At the moment, it does sound a bit lofty but its not impossible or even unrealistic. 

My PB in the half marathon distance is 2hrs 16 minutes something. I set this back in 2018 and I haven't done a half marathon race since. I also don't have any other recent long distance race times to go by. So this goal may seem like I just pulled it out of nowhere and in a sense thats probably true. Given the huge gap between the races, experts may tell me I shouldn't expect to PB in this upcoming race but my rationale is: why not? So I'm aiming for 2:10:00.  :) (But I'll also settle for anything under 2:16:00 just that for training planning, a good, round 2:10:00 works nicely)

There is a significant gap between my current pace (expected finish time for a HM at current levels would be around 2:35:00 I would say) and goal pace. But I didn't say that this plan wouldn't take work. I have 20 weeks to go and I'm willing to put in the time and effort. Or at least try. Plus, a challenge is always more motivating and will keep me on my toes during this training block.

The other day, I was listening to a running podcast (running explained) and the episode was about half marathon training and setting a realistic goal pace (mine's 6'09" to a km btw) and it talked about how the bulk of training should be at easy pace and dedicate maybe 1 run a week to goal-pace work. The body must get used to running longer distances at the goal pace so that its ready for Race day but that doesn't mean that every run should be run at goal pace because that would just lead to exhaustion & burn-out. So every week, schedule in a tempo run of 2miles, 1mile or 1K or 800m repeats at goal pace. It was also mentioned that if you can't run even 800m at your goal pace, then it is probably an unrealistic goal to set. 

So I put that to test on Friday and woohoo... I could run 800m at 6'09" (more or less). It felt hard but I can work on it. Today I ran 60 minutes on ground after a long, long time. Just about covered 7.7 km. Thats a 7'48" pace. These long runs are meant to be easy and I'm not putting any pace pressure on them. I need to feel confident about going long again while remaining strong. (Although, 7'48" pace didn't feel too easy. comfortably hard I would say it was). The problem is that these days, I'm running these long distances on a torturous 300m loop. Round and round and round - 60 minutes felt like forever but I got it done!

So theres Week1 in a snapshot... Lots of green checks. Got to keep this going. 2 more weeks of base training (or as I call it the honeymoon phase / confidence building phase) and then full-on HM training.. :)

Time for the next one

I'm signing up for a half marathon. Its been about 7 years since my last one

Earlier this year, it struck me that the 10yr anniversary of my first half marathon was coming up. In July, 2015, I ran my first ever 21.1 at the Dream Runners Half Marathon Event. I decided then that I would run this year’s edition of DRHM to commemorate this milestone. But given my current training status and the fact that I haven't been running all that much,  I imagine my timing would be even slower than my very first half. Can’t have that!

So then, why not train for it? Diligently and properly like I did for my very first one. Set a realistic goal, learn from all the many training mistakes I’ve made in the past and give it my best shot?

I have 21 weeks to go and a "realistic" goal in mind which I will set in stone over the next three weeks. The next three weeks is earmarked as base training which are basically meant to set me up for the goal-based training over the ensuing 18 weeks. Depending on how these base training weeks go, I may or may not adjust this said goal. :) 

More updates coming soon...